web performance challenges

One of the issues we discuss here every day is how to optimize the performance of the application we’re building. User expectations of site performance differ when browsing a modern XHTML-based site versus a google map.

We’re going to keep the user in a “static” mode as much as we can to maintain a responsive UI. “Static” doesn’t mean boring, though. Our site design will feature beautiful photography and elegant controls.

When the user wants to browse, for example, the reforestation area of the Mamoni Valley, we will switch them into Map View, with controls similar to those featured in Google Maps. In this mode, the user can select parcels for purchase, which would put them back into Static Mode to interact with the shopping cart.

Reza has built a prototype of the map layer with some low-resolution imagery, and we’re all excited to see it up on our development server with the new aerial photography being shot next month.

As we move closer to production, we’ll evaluate our options for caching, content delivery networks, and other performance tuning tools available to the PHP universe… ecoReserve will be a first-class application with excellent overall performance. Stay tuned, we’re just getting started.